Its trajectory in telecom is well known but now it is pushing for a similar leap into the ranks of the top players in its other businesses: media and entertainment, e-commerce, a series of online businesses ranging from health to education, and retail.
Mukesh Ambani-owned RIL's JioMart is set to launch a slew of new products including financial services, electronics to airline tickets to take on the competition from upcoming rivals like the Tata Super app and other established players including PayTM, Amazon and Flipkart. This comes at a time when RIL's e-commerce revenues are set to grow by 35 per cent to $15 billion within four years and its core retail revenue is expected to grow at the same pace to $44 billion, as per a forecast by Goldman Sachs. "The Tata vs JioMart war will be the next big corporate battle to watch. "While Tata has an upper hand like in-house products and brands, RIL has the backing of global biggies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft," said head of a rating firm asking not to be quoted.
The dreary, cold months from December to February may prove to be the undoing of many a nation as they grapple with sky-high fuel prices - a result of the Ukraine conflict and the pandemic. Many - Europe, South Korea, Japan, and China - will still pull through on the strength of their wealth or because of strong storage infrastructure. But India will have its back to the wall. Signs of liquefied natural gas (LNG) rates hitting new records this winter are already evident.
Reliance Industries (RIL) has been distilling its investment strategy to meet new goals. The share of the new energy vertical - its key focus area - accounts for more than a fourth (26 per cent) of the total war chest of $6.4 billion, ploughed into acquisitions and picking up stake from 2018 to date, reveals the latest Morgan Stanley data. Nearly half the incremental investments made on deals by RIL between August 2020 and September this year ($3.3 billion) has been spent on new energy - acquiring global companies with technology and expertise.
Amazon has seen its India sales growing four times this year.
Within IIP, the capital goods sub-index has contracted for seven continuous months, suggesting investment demand continues to be weak.
Ahead of the Union Budget 2023, insurers are hoping that the Centre will act on their recommendations, which includes increasing the limit for tax deduction under 80D of the Income Tax Act. Also among them are issuance of long-term bonds, tax incentives for home insurance premiums, and a separate section to claim deduction for term-insurance premium, among others. These suggestions would help improve the penetration of insurance in the country.
Nikunj Saraf, Vice President Choice Wealth, will answers your MF queries.
"Independence means if government has done something wrong, you say it's wrong. But at the same time, you should have courage when the government is doing the right thing every day. You have to also say that," he Gautam Adani was quoted as saying by FT.
One hundred and forty nine new individuals joined the rich list club of 1,103 Indians across 122 cities who cumulatively accumulated a wealth of Rs 100 trillion. Bengaluru -based Kaivalya Vohra, 19, of grocery delivery application Zepto is the youngest self-made and the youngest rich individual, according to IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2022. The report found 1,103 Indians with a networth of Rs 1,000 crore each - an increase of 62 per cent over five years. There are 221 billionaires (Rs 100 crore networth) in India on the 2022 list - down 16 compared with last year, while 13 people born in the 1990s made it to the list, all self-made.
Equity markets will look for directions from global trends, ongoing quarterly earnings and investment patterns of foreign institutional investors (FIIs) in a holiday-shortened week ahead and may encounter volatility amid the scheduled monthly derivatives expiry, according to analysts. Equity markets will remain closed on Wednesday on account of 'Republic Day'. "This week is a holiday-shortened one and it's going to be critical due to the list of events and data that are lined up.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday unveiled a Rs 39.45 lakh crore Budget with a view to fire up the key engines of the economy to sustain a world-beating recovery from the pandemic. This was Sitharaman's fourth Budget. While the taxpayers were left in the lurch, once again, was she able to cheer Corporate India?
Shocks from Brexit could also hurt one of China's biggest export markets.
China remains a "formidable challenge" that has increased its presence not only along India's land borders but also in the maritime domain, Navy Chief Admiral R Hari Kumar said on Tuesday and asserted that the naval force keeps a regular watch in the Indian Ocean Region.
Equity benchmarks began the week on a downbeat note on Monday, weighed by heavy selling in market heavyweight Reliance Industries and persisting weakness in global bourses. The rupee plunged to its lifetime low against the US dollar amid unabated foreign fund outflows, underscoring the risk-off sentiment prevailing globally as central banks embark on policy tightening to tame soaring inflation. Slipping for the second straight session, the 30-share BSE Sensex shed 364.91 points or 0.67 per cent to close at 54,470.67.
iPhone sales in India were up by 56 per cent during the period.
When Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) was conceived last December, the idea was to reduce the dominance of e-commerce giants like Amazon and Flipkart. It was also to bring in a level-playing field for small merchants in India's fragmented but fast-growing $1-trillion retail market. However, those goals have changed now as large e-commerce players such as Flipkart, Amazon and Ecom Express are in various levels of talks with the ONDC team. They want to form partnerships like integrating with the network as well as providing their expertise to build it, according to the industry sources.
Nikunj Saraf, Vice President Choice Wealth, answers your mutual fund queries.
Ambani's $15 bn bet will upend Indian telecom
Titan was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising over 3 per cent, followed by M&M, Reliance Industries, Axis Bank, TCS, Maruti and Infosys. NSE Nifty surged 122.10 points to 15,885.15.
Nikunj Saraf, Vice President Choice Wealth, answers your Mutual Fund queries.
'The term 'pro-growth' must be qualified somewhat because, while a rising tide will lift all boats, it will not necessarily do so equally.'
Wondering if you did the right thing with your mutual fund investments?
Combined profit before tax of 81 firms down 37.5% y-o-y, worst show in at least 3 years.
Singh made the remarks while addressing a "CEOs' Roundtable" at the 14th edition of Aero India at the Yelahanka Air Force station complex on the outskirts of Bengaluru.
PowerGrid was the top laggard in the Sensex pack, shedding over 2 per cent, followed by HCL Tech, ONGC, M&M, Axis Bank, TCS, Reliance Industries and Infosys. On the other hand, Asian Paints, Titan, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finance and Bajaj Auto were among the gainers.
Billionaire Gautam Adani on Tuesday said China will feel increasingly isolated as rising nationalism, shift in supply chains and technology restrictions threaten the world's second-biggest economy. This is because globalisation, of which China was seen as the foremost champion, is at an inflection point. "It will look very different from what we had come to accept in a largely unipolar world," he said.
Richest Indian Gautam Adani's ports-to-power-to-cement conglomerate is "deeply overleveraged" with the group predominantly using debt to invest aggressively across existing as well as new businesses, CreditSights, a Fitch Group unit, said on Tuesday. In a report titled 'Adani Group: Deeply Overleveraged', CreditSights said, "In the worst-case scenario, overly ambitious debt-funded growth plans could eventually spiral into a massive debt trap, and possibly culminate into a distressed situation or default of one or more group companies." Starting out as a commodities trader in the late 1980s, the Adani group has diversified from mines, ports and power plants into airports, data centers and defence.
Backed by the 'China Plus One' sentiment globally, India's textile exports is expected to grow by 81 per cent to $65 billion by 2026 from the pre-Covid level of around $36 billion in 2019, said a report by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and global consulting firm Kearney. This jump is likely to generate 7.5-10 million new jobs. A large chunk of this targeted increase, or around $16 billion may come from the China Plus One sentiment due to India's relatively large strategic depth compared with Vietnam or Bangladesh, the report said.
The first private sector MF, Kothari Pioneer was registered in July 1993.
India's top listed companies reported their best-ever quarterly net profit of Rs 2.39 trillion in the September quarter of FY22, up 46.4 per cent year-on-year. The earnings were driven by a big surge in the profitability of banks, non-banking financial companies & insurance (BFSI), oil & gas, and metal & mining firms. The combined net profit of these three cyclical sectors were up 87 per cent YoY to a record high of Rs 1.53 trillion, up from Rs 82,000 crore a year ago and Rs 1.08 trillion in Q1FY22.
Ambani is in good company. The likes of ultra-rich individuals like hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio and co-founder of Google Sergey Brin have chosen Singapore to establish their family offices. So have British inventor James Dyson, famous for his bladeless fans and hair dryers and vacuum cleaners, and Zhang Yong, founder of China's Haidilao hotpot restaurant chain, reports Lee Kah Whye.
Acquisition of stressed infrastructure assets has pushed its debt to over Rs 1 lakh crore, highlighting concerns about its growth strategy.
Tata Steel was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, climbing 2.11 per cent, followed by Infosys, HDFC Bank, HDFC, Kotak Bank, M&M and PowerGrid. NSE Nifty jumped 142.05 points to end at 17,605.85.
Investors have gained Rs 3,93,349.08 crore in four days following a strong rally in the equity markets amid a declining trend in COVID-19 cases. In four consecutive sessions of gains, the 30-share BSE Sensex has climbed 1,299.91 points or 2.56 per cent. The BSE benchmark index on Monday closed at 51,937.44, a gain of 514.56 points or 1 per cent. In four days, the market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies zoomed Rs 3,93,349.08 crore to close at a record high of Rs 2,22,99,810.27 crore on Monday.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday held a meeting with representatives of the semiconductor industry of the US and invited them to make further investments in India. The finance minister spoke about opportunities for companies situated in Silicon Valley and about the government of India's commitment to be a reliable player in the entire semiconductor value chain with dedicated incentive for the sector in mission mode through the Indian Semiconductor Mission. Last year, the government approved a Rs 76,000-crore scheme to boost semiconductor and display manufacturing in the country in a bid to position India as a global hub for hi-tech production, and attract large chip makers.
Reliance Industries Ltd on Thursday announced a Rs 75,000 crore investment in new energy business over the next three years as the operator of the world's largest oil refinery pivots towards a greener and cleaner version. Reliance will build solar manufacturing units, a battery factory for energy storage, a fuel cell-making plant and an electrolyzer unit to produce green hydrogen as a part of the business, chairman Mukesh Ambani said at the company's annual general meeting with shareholders on Thursday. It will also set up 100 gigawatts (GW) of solar power generation capacity by 2030 and invest in setting up a carbon fibre plant.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said banks need to focus more on being customer-friendly so that the process of availing credit becomes more hassle-free for borrowers. However, the minister made it clear that banks do not have to be lenient on credit underwriting standards by taking any adverse risks on a proposal. At a meeting between industry representatives and the finance minister, a startup founder in the baking business suggested for credit to be available hassle-free, to which largest lender SBI's chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara said a startup's worries are more on the equity side and assured full support in lending if sufficient equity is on the table.
India's second-largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel on Tuesday posted more than twofold year-on-year jump in its consolidated net profit for the March quarter to Rs 2,008 crore, buoyed by a lift in average revenue per user and an exceptional gain. The telco said its Q4 scorecard was backed by strong performance delivery across the portfolio and its CEO Gopal Vittal, in a statement, exuded optimism about opportunities in the coming years and Airtel being "well-poised" as a company. Airtel, which competes in the market with Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea, as well as state-owned BSNL/MTNL, promised to maintain razor sharp focus on financial flexibility, optimising the capital structure and finance cost.
Indian Economy poised for growth, say experts.